Filtered in-box for voice mail, e-mail, pages, web-based information, and faxes

ABSTRACT

The present invention is directed to a system for displaying, organizing, and prioritizing the incoming information on a wireless device. Using the present invention the wireless device can display the number of voice mails, e-mails, pages, and Internet information alerts that have been received by the wireless device during a specified time period. The invention also allows the incoming information to be separated by any number of user-specified criteria such as the originating sender, or divided by work related and personal messages. The present invention allows the wireless device user to see at a glance what kind of information has been received and is being stored on the wireless device.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of pending U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 10/644,641 filed Aug. 10, 2003, and entitled “FILTERED IN-BOXFOR VOICE MAIL, E-MAIL, PAGES, WEB-BASED INFORMATION, AND FAXES,” whichclaims the benefit of priority to U.S. patent application Ser. No.09/386,762 filed Aug. 31, 1999, and entitled “FILTERED IN-BOX FORVOICEMAIL, E-MAIL, PAGES, WEB-BASED INFORMATION, AND FAXES,” bothincorporated by reference herein in their entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to a method for organizing,prioritizing, and displaying incoming message information on a wirelessdevice.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In recent years, the functionality of wireless devices has expanded farbeyond simple voice or pager communications. Wireless devices can nowreceive a variety of incoming messages including pages, e-mails, faxes,voicemails, and short message services such as weather or sportsupdates. In some cases the actual message, for example a voicemail, isnot delivered directly to the wireless device due to memory, bandwidth,or other limitations, but rather a notification message is sent to thewireless device to notify the user that a message has arrived and isbeing stored at a remote location. These type of notification messagesare known in the art as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,797,103, “Method andApparatus For Informing A Remote Unit Of A Feature-Originated Call,”incorporated herein by reference. The notification messages, as well assome actual messages, are generally stored within the wireless device.However, most wireless devices are only equipped with a small screenthat displays a few short lines of text or small graphics. To view eachitem that has been sent to the wireless device, the user generally mustscroll through a series of screens or menus and may be forced to examineall of the items of a particular type, or sometimes all of the itemsregardless of type in order to find the message of interest. Mostwireless devices can be set to alert the user that a new message hasarrived, but this feature is not very useful if it is alerting the userevery few moments that something new has arrived. The user is likely tobegin ignoring the alert or simply turn it off. This may result inimportant messages going unnoticed among a large number of unimportantmessages.

For example, a user may subscribe to a number of services for hiswireless device, including paging, a sports score service, and e-mail.With all of these services active on a typical evening when a variety ofsporting events are in progress, the user may be receiving severalmessages every few minutes. If during this time the user receives animportant page or e-mail from his or her boss, the message may gounnoticed among all the other messages and the user may miss animportant work assignment.

The user of a wireless device can be easily overwhelmed when trying tokeep track of and prioritize the myriad pieces of information that arearriving at any given time. It would be desirable for the wirelessdevice to be able to organize the incoming information in such a waythat the user can quickly and easily recognize and distinguish betweenimportant and unimportant items.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a method for automatically organizing andprioritizing the incoming messages on a wireless communication deviceand displaying the messages accordingly. A predetermined set of rules isused to perform the organization and prioritization of the incomingmessages. When a message arrives, it is analyzed to determine certainclassification information about the message. This classificationinformation is then used to organize the incoming message among themessages that are already being stored on or referenced on the wirelessdevice. This information is also used to determine the priority of theincoming message. Depending on the level of priority assigned to theincoming message, the wireless device may alert the user that the newmessage has arrived or may just store the message for the next time theuser chooses to check for messages. The wireless device may also updateits display to reflect the various classification information that hasbeen gathered about the messages presently being stored.

The present invention allows the user of a wireless communication deviceto subscribe to any number of services that send messages to the device,but the user maintains control over the way the incoming messages arehandled to prevent being overwhelmed with information.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a wireless network such as may be used with anembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating one possible implementation of themethod of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an alternative implementation of themethod of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention could be implemented within a wireless networksimilar to that depicted in FIG. 1. A wireless device 101 communicateswith a wireless infrastructure 102 that is connected to a variety ofpublic and private networks including the Public Switched TelephoneNetwork (PSTN) 103 and the Internet 104. The user of the wireless devicesubscribes to a variety of information services that send messages ofvarious formats or types to the wireless device via one of the networksto which wireless infrastructure 102 is connected. These services caninclude, but are not limited to, email, paging, voice mail, fax, andshort message services (including short message based informationservices). These messages can originate from a variety of equipment suchas telephone 105, fax machine 106, computer terminal 107, or networkserver 108 depending on the type of message. The equipment that sendsthe message will vary based on the type of message and some messages maypass through more than one type of equipment before delivery to thewireless device. For example, an individual may leave a voicemailmessage for the user of the wireless device from telephone 105, but thevoicemail will likely be stored on Private Branch Exchange equipment 109or telephone company equipment 110 and the device storing the voicemailwill send a notification message to the wireless device to inform theuser that the voicemail has arrived. Additionally, some types ofmessages can be sent from more than one type of equipment. For example,faxes may be sent from either fax machine 106 or computer terminal 107if it is equipped with fax software.

FIG. 2 illustrates one possible way of implementing the presentinvention where much of the processing of the incoming messages isperformed in the wireless infrastructure. A message for the user ofwireless device 101 is received by wireless infrastructure 102 (step201). The wireless infrastructure then retrieves a set of rulescorresponding to the user for which the message is intended from adatabase either co-located with the wireless infrastructure or at aremote location and accessible to the wireless infrastructure via acomputer network (step 202). Using these rules, the wirelessinfrastructure analyzes the message and determines classificationinformation about the message (step 203). Based on this classificationinformation, the wireless infrastructure can assign a priority to themessage if desired; and if this priority is not very high the wirelessinfrastructure may elect not to send the alert message to the device,instead saving the alert message for later retrieval (step 204, 205). Ifthe priority is sufficiently high, the wireless infrastructure sends analert message to the wireless device containing the classificationinformation about the received message (step 206). This alert messagecan optionally contain part or the entire contents of the originalmessage along with the classification information. Once the wirelessdevice receives the alert message, it organizes and prioritizes theincoming message with the messages already stored on the wireless deviceusing the classification information and pre-assigned priorityinformation (if available) associated with the incoming message and theclassification information that was previously determined for andassociated with each of the stored messages (step 207). The wirelessdevice then checks to see if the incoming message has been designated ofa sufficient priority level to alert the user of the wireless devicethat it has arrived (step 208). If so, the wireless device can select acustomizable or user-defined alert type such as ringing, beeping, orvibrating, based on the classification information (step 209). Thewireless device alerts the user using the selected method (step 210).The display of the wireless device may also be updated to reflect that anew message has arrived such as by the display of standard oruser-defined icons or sounds, the display of summarized message countsby type, or the display of the actual message itself as determined bythe message priority and user-defined settings (step 211).

The method of the present invention as illustrated in FIG. 2 could alsobe implemented in another device on the network to which the wirelessinfrastructure could route the incoming messages for processing beforepassing them on to the wireless device.

Alternatively, all of the processing could be done on the wirelessdevice itself as illustrated by the flowchart in FIG. 3. The wirelessdevice receives an incoming message from the wireless infrastructure(step 301). The wireless device then retrieves a predetermined set ofrules corresponding to the user of the wireless device from its ownmemory or alternatively from a database somewhere else in the network(step 302). The incoming message is then analyzed using thepredetermined set of rules to determine classification information (step303). Using this classification information, the wireless deviceorganizes the incoming message with the messages already stored on thewireless device (step 304). The wireless device also employs thepredetermined rules to determine whether the incoming message is ofsufficient priority to alert the user that it has arrived (step 305). Ifit is of sufficient priority, then the wireless device alerts the userusing well known methods (step 306). In either case, the wireless deviceupdates its display to reflect the incoming message (step 307).

The rule sets of the present invention used to determine theclassification information are typically predetermined by the user ofthe wireless device. The user can input and modify these rules using anyof a variety of well-known systems including calling into an interactivevoice response system or a system that responds to touch-tone keypresses, using software carried on the wireless device itself, or usinga computer interface via the Internet or World Wide Web. These rulescould be very simple in nature, with the user's choices limited to a fewvery general rules based on a few criteria, for example, message type ormessage origin. Alternatively, the user could be given the option ofcreating sophisticated rules that would allow the incoming messages tobe searched for key words or phrases, or that would use different rulesdepending on time of day, day of the week, source of message, etc. Thepresent invention could also be implemented with nested categories. Forexample, all email messages could be grouped under an “email” categoryand within that category the email messages could be grouped again as“work” or “personal” email.

For example, one potential rule would analyze an incoming email messageand extract the email address of the originator. This address could thenbe cross-referenced with a built-in address book on the wireless deviceto locate the category that the individual corresponding to the emailaddress has been classified under in the address book. The email messagecould then be classified under the same category.

The kind of classification information that can be obtained from theincoming message will vary based on the type or format of the message,but typical information may include type, origin, time received, andsize. Certain message formats, such as email, can provide furtherinformation including, for example, full text searching of the contentof the message. More sophisticated systems could be implemented tosearch voicemail messages for keywords through the use of voicerecognition technology. Those of skill in the art will easily be able todetermine additional kinds of information that can be extracted fromincoming messages for use as classification information based on thetype of message.

The display of the wireless device can be updated to inform the user ofthe results of the classification, organization, and prioritizationsteps in a variety of ways. The display of the wireless device couldshow the number of messages under each of the categories defined by therule sets. Alternatively, the display could organize the messages bypriority level, time received, or any other externally defined oruser-defined item of classification information.

The method of the present invention can be implemented using any wellknown programming language and techniques. The implementation on thewireless device may be particularly suited to using Wireless ApplicationProtocol (WAP) Forum defined standards, such as Wireless Markup Language(WML). The use of rule sets to organize messages is well known in thefield of email software. Products like Microsoft Outlook 97 employ rulesto direct incoming email messages to particular folders within theuser's email box. Those of skill in the art will recognize how toimplement the rule sets of the present invention to function in asimilar fashion but without being limited to any one type of message.

The present invention is not limited to the specific embodimentsdescribed. It is expected that those skilled in the art will be able todevise other implementations that embody the principles of the presentinvention and remain within its scope.

1. A wireless communication device, comprising: a receiver configured toreceive a plurality of messages of a first format and a plurality ofmessages of a second format; and a display configured to presentclassification information associated with the messages of the firstformat and the second format.
 2. The wireless communication device ofclaim 1, further comprising a processor configured to determine theclassification information for the plurality of messages of the firstformat and the plurality of messages of the second format.
 3. Thewireless communication device of claim 2, further comprising a memory,wherein the processor is configured to determine the classificationinformation based on at least one a rule stored in the memory.
 4. Thewireless communication device of claim 2, wherein the processor isconfigured to produce updated classification information, and thedisplay is configured to present the updated classification information.5. The wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein the receiver isconfigured to receive classification information associated withmessages from the plurality of messages of the first format and theplurality of messages of the second format, and the display isconfigured to display a first message counter or a second messagecounter corresponding to the first format or the second format,respectively, based on the received classification information.
 6. Thewireless communication device of claim 1, wherein the classificationinformation includes information about an origin of at least onereceived message.
 7. The wireless communication device of claim 1,wherein the receiver is configured to receive a plurality of messages ofa third format.
 8. The wireless communication device of claim 1, wherethe first format is a voice mail format.
 9. The wireless communicationdevice of claim 1, wherein the first format is a fax format.
 10. Thewireless communication device of claim 1, wherein the first format is ane-mail format.
 11. The wireless communication device of claim 1, whereinthe first format is a paging format.
 12. The wireless communicationdevice of claim 1, wherein the first format is a short message serviceformat.
 13. The wireless communication device of claim 1, wherein thefirst format is based on a Wireless Markup Language.
 14. A networkdevice for a wireless infrastructure, comprising: a receiver configuredto receive a message for a wireless network user; and a processorconfigured to evaluate the message based on a predetermined rule set andproduce a message classification.
 15. The network device of claim 14,further comprising a transmitter configured to transmit the messageclassification.
 16. The network device of claim 15, wherein thetransmitter is configured to transmit the received message to thewireless network user.
 17. The network device of claim 14, furthercomprising a transmitter configured to transmit at least one of thereceived message and the message classification to a wirelesscommunication device.
 18. The network device of claim 14, wherein theprocessor is configured to produce an updated message count associatedwith the message classification.
 19. The network device of claim 14,further comprising a memory configured to store the predetermined ruleset.
 20. The network device of claim 14, wherein the receiver isconfigured to receive at least a portion of the predetermined rule setfrom a wireless communication device.